Lesser than Zero

I suppose it is my contrarian nature, but I have always had books that I resisted reading because my friends and classmates raved about them so much. Catcher in the Rye, Kurt Vonnegut books, Bright Lights, Big City, On the Road, A Million Little Pieces, David Eggers, Infinite Jest, and Less than Zero.
Well, I eventually broke down and read Catcher, On the Road, and Less than Zero. As Meatloaf once said, "Two out of three ain't bad." What is bad is Less than Zero by Bret Easton Ellis. I could have done without the first 160 pages or so. If you like novels about ennui and rich, spoiled, nihilistic twenty-somethings, this is the book for you. Honestly, I'm not even sure "nihilistic" is an accurate term, because that implies that you have some type of intellect and a passing interest in philosophy. If Camus' question about suicide is a starting point for Ellis' novel,"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy", than the characters that populate Ellis' novel are a cross between Camus' Meursault and Beavis and Butthead. If Ellis and the characters don't care about their own lives, than why should I as a reader?
There are literally hundreds of pages of random dialogue that shows only that Ellis seems to be a fan of Hemingway's prose style. Now to be fair to Hemingway, he knew how to create a narrative momentum that is entirely missing from Less than Zero.
I don't know if the teachers that Ellis had at Bennington College encouraged this style of writing, but it took a real effort to finish this book. There is some talent in places, but I cannot believe the blurbs on the back cover of the edition I read. If these reviewers really meant those words, I think they were as coked up as the characters this book.
The last 50 pages or so are by far the best and here is where I can see some of the talent and promise all the reviewers wrote about. However, I don't know that this is enough to redeem the book overall.
I know this isn't an original quote, but books like Ellis', Frey's, et. al. are part of what I like to call "The Unbearable Whiteness of Being."
Ugh!

Czar